The film is quite literally fragmented. Too much story -- and too little about each character.
Comment
08/10/09
Fragments (2009)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:30
Fresh:13
Rotten:17
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Sensitive but not insightful, Fragments pieces an ensemble together in the same way Crash did but without the gravitas.
Theatrical Release:Jul 31, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Forest Whitaker, and Josh Hutcherson star as people whose lives change dramatically after they share in a traumatic event at a diner. Based on the novel... [More]
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Forest Whitaker
Director: Rowan Woods
Reviews for Fragments
Top Critic[A] well acted ensemble piece that I think you should see.
08/10/09
Top CriticThe grand statement it wants to make plays shallow instead of deep, leaving the film too weak-kneed to carry the weight of its broken world.
08/07/09
Top CriticA well-directed tense drama with a terrific cast, it is an old-fashioned, no-nonsense film with no special effects that relies on acting and script.
08/07/09
Even as it makes a show of complexity Fragments seems determined to pull together its various story strands.
08/06/09
Crash's Best Picture Oscar win helped jump-start a wave of self-deluded ensemble imitators who seem to feel that overt emotionalism ladled over a loosely connected narrative is a surefire sign of Important Filmmaking. Witness Fragments.
08/04/09
Less a movie than a sociology thesis.
08/04/09
Rowan Woods indulges in some sub-subpar Crash territory here, with a laughably self-serious narrative that has less to do with reality than histrionics.
08/01/09
Despite its very impressive lineup, this film is full of inconsistencies and moves at a slow pace. So many performances are wasted.
07/31/09
Fragments is both deeply self-serious and essentially meaningless, the sort of we're-all-connected tragedy in which birds fly free while humans remain stuck in place.
07/31/09
Top CriticFrierich's hook is, well, killer. And Woods is patient with his story, letting small glances and tiny actions speak volumes.
07/31/09
The casting directors of Fragments deserve credit for assembling so much talent in one modest movie; if only Rowan Woods, the director, knew what to do with them.
07/31/09
Top CriticVividly conveys the sorrow and suffering brought into the lives of five individuals by a man with a gun and his act of random violence.
07/31/09
Yet another example of an undeniable truth in drama -- without the right screenplay, the best cast in the world can't make a film worth seeing.
07/30/09
The anxiety is deafening in this flimsy symphony of shattered lives, which -- like that confounding Oscar winner Crash -- confuses entropy for empathy.
07/30/09
The hell that Paul Haggis hath wrought grows exponentially by the day.
07/30/09
Top CriticThe pace is too languid to sustain much viewer concentration, and whatever the characters go through seems only peripherally connected to the shooting in the diner. Close, but no cigar.
07/29/09
Top CriticA harrowing examination of the metaphysical harm inflicted by gun massacres.
07/28/09
There's a miserable sense of a country that's terminally sick in the head and spirit. It's a tiresome idea, no matter how well the actors play it.
07/17/09
I'm making it sound very grim and depressing, but miraculously it's not. The interlocking sections are beautifully constructed, and in a large and notable ensemble cast, the performances are vivid and convincing. The children are especially good.
07/17/09
Latest News for Fragments
July 30, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Funny People Is Ambitious But Uneven
This week at the movies, we've got the tears of a clown (Funny People, starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen), extra-terrestrial visitors upstairs (Aliens in the Attic, starring... More...
July 29, 2009:
Trailer and pics to 'Fragments,' formerly known as 'Winged Creatues' with Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Forest Whitaker, Embeth Davidtz, Jennifer Hudson, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Josh Hutcherson 
More...
July 07, 2009:
Director Rowan Woods Talks Winged Creatures
It's been a roundabout sort of homecoming for Australian filmmaker Rowan Woods. The director, who made his name with the critically-praised local movies The Boys (1998) and... More...
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